Michael Brunson, ITN
Mrs. Thatcher, you called this a “rounded” Summit and you said you were very pleased with it and it was excellent and there are a lot of things set out in the communique. Of all those things that are set out there, which pleases you most?
Prime Minister
It is difficult to select one from another because in a way they are all important to the future of the people we represent.
I think the longest part of the communique goes to the environment and dealing with that is urgent. It is urgent because of the scientific evidence of what is happening to the atmosphere round our globe. Hitherto, we thought it would always continue and somehow we have been dumping waste gases up there for a long time and it is having an effect. We know not quite what that effect is going to be, but we know we have got to mend our ways and we know it has got to be done globally. So we really got down to that at this Summit in a much deeper way than ever before.
The economy: we know now the right recipe and we do not argue about it very much. Each year, we have particular problems and we deal with those. [end p1]
The third special problem this year really is an enhanced activity with regard to drugs because although we have dealt with these problems before we really have the new problem of crack—cocaine—which has been flooding the American market and we must do everything we can to stop it getting further and we really must make a different set of efforts in addition to those we have already made to get at the money which the drug dealers try to launder the world over, and we have got to get every financial institution to help us in this and we are going to do just that.
Michael Brunson, ITN
I had always got the impression that you were not wildly keen on summits and conferences and people talking—you rather preferred people doing—but on my account, I think you have signed up here to conferences or meetings on Cambodia, the Middle East, Bangladesh, Poland, drugs and perhaps even a North-South Conference. Is not that a bit much?
Prime Minister
Not a particular North-South Conference because we had one of those in Cancún and we talk about these things in other places and this has been an action Summit. It is a small one. [end p2]
The political problems that you spoke about: right at the beginning in my opening remarks, one pointed out that you not only have to get the economics right but you also have to get the politics right if you are to have a successful economy.
If you look at some countries, they have got more natural resources than some of the successful countries but have not got their politics right. Argentina, for example, used to be a country in the Twenties with a higher standard of living than the United States, a lot of natural resources. It happens to a number of Latin-American countries. The Lebanon used to be quite a prosperous country. She has ruined it by the politics, by the strife between her people.
I remember that we had enormous economic difficulties because of the Middle-Eastern War when the price of oil went up fourfold and then again with the Iran-Iraq War.
So what we are saying is you cannot just look at the economics, at the environment or even at the personal problems like drugs. You have got constantly to work at the political problems and this year, of course, since Mr. Gorbachev and the changes in Eastern Europe with Poland and Hungary, we have got new problems but new opportunities, so that is why we had to lend a helping hand. You must always take the new opportunities and be on the look-out for them—and we have. [end p3]
Bangladesh: there are five or six of us who have been helping Bangladesh for a long time and yet she still has those floods, and now we are looking at more fundamental plans to see if we can stop some of that flooding.
Michael Brunson, ITN
I noted what you said in your previous answer about the way in which you are worried about crack and cocaine and I know you have expressed that before. What good, though, will the London Conference actually do in that connection?
Prime Minister
The London Conference? We have to tackle it in two ways:
First, by getting at the money. As you know, we have passed our laws. We now cooperate with a number of other countries. There is now a United Nations Convention which urges all countries to pass laws and under our laws we have already taken away £8 million, even if they have only just come in, from drug dealers and we have got a similar amount already under constraint. That is one of the things—trying to get at their money which they would otherwise have.
The other thing is trying to warn people of what would happen if they take drugs and the terrible consequences, particularly young children, and to warn them of the kind of approach they might get [end p4] and warn them not to do it because if one does it can be habit-forming—and we announced previously that we were going to have an international conference on that. Not only the warning to try to cut down the demand but then, when people have unfortunately taken drugs, how to rehabilitate them so they still have some chance of doing something good with their lives. All of this, but that will be 1990. So you tackle the money which the drug dealers get and you tackle by trying to reduce demand.
One of the things which I have learned from this Summit which I did not know before is that Japan does not have very much of a drug problem. Isn't that interesting? I wonder why? We can actually learn something from her and cut down the demand for drugs.
Michael Brunson, ITN
I am still a little puzzled as to what it is. Right, you say you can do something about the education at home, you can warn people of the danger. I am not certain what fifty countries sitting round a table is going to do.
Prime Minister
Oh well, we are going to share experiences. We already have a scheme. We have buses that go round all made out as classrooms so they can go round from school to school with a very good programme on asking the children and teaching the children what happens if you take certain things. [end p5]
Michael Brunson, ITN
So we might suggest that to other countries?
Prime Minister
We can show them. One came outside No. 10 Downing Street with a whole lot of children in it and I went in with them. We had a little class. I was amazed what those children knew—they were all believe [sic] twelve. It is quite a different world and what they know about drugs and the people who try to persuade them—quite different. And so we have to share all our information and good ideas.
Michael Brunson, ITN
Just a couple of points on while you have been here in Paris. I noted what you said during the press conference about you did not feel any slight during the meetings, but people have been heard booing in the streets here.
Prime Minister
Goodness me, a very small number! Do you know, it has been about 90 percent cheers and one or two boos. Goodness me! I thought, “I wish this were home! If I had 90 percent cheers and only about 10 percent …” Indeed, I did allow myself to wonder for a time if they were English tourists. Wouldn't that have been nice, 90 percent plus and only about 10 percent against? [end p6]
Michael Brunson, ITN
They were Frenchmen, were they?
Prime Minister
No. I think a lot of Frenchmen are now out of Paris because of the obvious restrictions while the events have been on. I think quite a lot were tourists but I really have had such an enormous number of cheers. There were a lot of French people as well.
Michael Brunson, ITN
A very brief question! Have you decided on the reshuffle?
Prime Minister
No.
Michael Brunson, ITN
Not at all? Have not even thought about it?
Prime Minister
I have not sorted it out at all.
Michael Brunson, ITN
And when will you sort it out?
Prime Minister
When I tell you! [end p7]
Michael Brunson, ITN
… . say it might be September rather than July when you say do not expect. …
Prime Minister
When I have something to say, I will see that somehow I manage to let you know.